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Monday, August 30, 2010

Mint Chip Ice Cream and Steamed Potatoes with a Minty Dressing

Slowpoke! That should be my nickname. Captain Slowpoke. Tomorrow is the last day to enter this month's SOS Kitchen Challenge and here I am entering just now, almost at the last minute. It's almost disgraceful! But still, I made a savory dish *and* a dessert, so I'm hoping that will earn me some brownie points. Or in this case minty points! Let's start with the savory for a change! :)

Steamed potatoes with herby mint dressing

This is the easiest dressing ever! It works great with steamed potatoes and it was also super tasty with my weekly baked tofu splurge. Assuming that you already know how to steam potatoes, here is the recipe for the herby mint dressing.

1. Mince the mint and parsley leaves. Mince the garlic as fine as possible.

2. In a small mixing bowl whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh lemon juice until well combined.

3. Add the paprika, salt and black pepper to taste. Stir in the minced herbs and garlic and let the dressing rest for 10 minutes.

4. Pour over the steamed potatoes and toss to coat.

That'll do pig. That'll do. This was enough dressing for two steamed potatoes which weighed about 6oz/170g each, raw. Serve hot and sprinkle with more salt and pepper if needed.

Oh, what'd ya say? You just ate these garlicky potatoes but you didn't remember you had a date with one of the Cullens? Oh no! Quick! Have a bowl of minty ice cream to freshen up your breath!

Coconut Milk Mint-Chip Ice Cream

Mmmmminty! This is my new favorite ice cream flavor! I've never been a mint ice cream person, but I am a convert. Even Mr. Wing-It loves it! At first he found it too herby, but now he's coo coo for minty ice cream! This recipe was inspired by David Lebovitz's non-vegan mint chip ice cream.

1. In a medium saucepan combine the mint leaves, sugar and water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Let it steep for 15 minutes.

2. Pour the contents of the saucepan into a blender jar, add the coconut milk, baby spinach, vanilla and salt. Liquefy for about a minute or until smooth. It should look nice and green now!

3. Strain the mixture into a medium size mixing bowl (if possible, one with a spout for easy pouring.) Let it cool in the fridge for an hour or until the bottom of the bowl feels completely cold.

4. Once chilled, strain it again into your ice cream maker's bowl, and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It took just about 30 minutes in my awesome Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Place a food storage container (where you want to keep your ice cream) in the freezer. Don't have an ice cream maker? That's cool, Mr. Lebovitz tells you how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker here.

5. A few minutes before the ice cream maker is done churning, melt the chocolate chippers in the microwave in a dry glass bowl. I don't do double boilers (yawn.) It took my microwave 90 seconds on low power, stirring every 30 seconds, to melt the chips completely.

6. Now comes the fun part! When the ice cream maker is done churning, remove your food storage container from the freezer and spread about half of the ice cream on the bottom. Drizzle about half of the melted chocolate all over the ice cream and stir to break up the chocolate into tiny chips. Beat it into submission if you have to! Repeat with the other half of the ice cream and the rest of the melted chocolate.

7. When you're done having fun breaking up the chocolate, cover the bowl and freeze the ice cream until firm.

I always take it out of the freezer about five minutes before serving so it's not too hard and it's way easier to scoop.

* It won't taste like spinach! Honest! The baby spinach is just there to give the ice cream a nice green color, because it's so purrrrdy that way!

** This recipe calls for grain sweetened chocolate chips because I'm a good girl and I'm playing by the SOS Kitchen Challenge rules, but any type of chocolate chips or baking chocolate will work. Wouldn't it be nice if they made maple sweetened chippers? Anyway, I only do 1/4 cup of chocolate chips because Mr. Wing-It doesn't like a lot of chocolate, but if I was going to make this only for myself I would probably go with 1/2 cup for extra chocolateness!

That's it for my SOS Kitchen Challenge entry! I made it! YAY! I'm looking forward to next month's challenge already! Check out Ricki's blog and Kim's blog if you too want to participate in this fun challenge! And check out Ricki's Mint Chip ice cream too! :)

Now before I go have another scoop of ice cream, check out these amazing flourless peanut butter cookies courtesy of Ashley of the (never home)maker blog!

Ashley blogged about my Mutant Flourless Almond Butter Cookies and she even made her own awesome version! They are made with chunky peanut butter for extra crunchiness, and they are super delicious! I knew I wanted to make these peanut butter goodies as soon as I saw them on Ashley's blog. Go check out her pictures and you'll see why I couldn't resist! Thank you for sharing the peanutty goodness, Ashley! :D

Your recipes look amazing, and I am so glad you made it to the challenge! Those potatoes are calling my name (well, the dressing is, actually--the potatoes can come along for the ride!) And I LOVE the look of your mint chip ice cream--what a stunning photo! Those cookies don't look half bad, either. ;) Now I'm hungry! Thanks so much for this stellar submission to the SOS Challenge, River. :D

You just had to post this to rub it in after my mint chocolate chip fail. Alright, you're forgiven, but only because you gave such a great, detailed recipe. And amazing photos that almost make me taste the ice cream. Almost.

Carissa - Thank you! Mint is so yummy, it's the king of the herbs because it can be used both in sweet and savory dishes! I love it too! :)

Ricki - YAY! I'm glad you like my first-of-many submission! This was a lot of fun and I can't wait until you guys reveal the next SOS ingredient! :)

Susan - I wish I could eat your blog *and* snorgle your kittehs! The spinach in the ice cream is very sneaky, you don't even know it's there. Mr. Wing-It who hates spinach can't even taste it at all! *WIN* :D

Katie - I'm not rubbing it in! I'm not, I'm not! Will you forgive me if we share a couple of ice cream cones? You know, like a peace pipe but without the sharing of germs? :P

Marina - Welcome to Wing-It! The cuisinart ice cream maker was one of the best investments we ever made! Really, we use it a few times a week! We got it on sale too so it was a steal! :D

HayMarket8 - Thank you! Nope. If anything it's too hard! I always take it out of the freezer a few minutes before serving so it can soften a little. Unless I just want to stab it with a knife and eat the little bits that come off because I can't wait five minutes! :D

Sal - Oh man, I love me some taters! I could eat them every friggin' day! More cookbook chants! Hee hee! You guys made me want to at least give it a shot. I'll probably need a couple of testers at some point... want to test my tater recipes? :P

Mint chocolate chip was always my favorite ice cream flavor! I'll definitely try your recipe at some point; spinach in ice cream is exciting to me, even if it is primarily for the color. Yay, for veggies in dessert form!

Your two minty entrees look so incredible — makes me pine for my old garden with its out of control mint patch. I'm trying to believe you that you can't taste the spinach but I'm not quite there yet. The ice cream does look delectable, though. :D (And I'm with you on adding the extra chocolate.)

If it were possible to eat the potatoes right through my computer screen, I would! I've never thought about a mint dressing for potatoes, but it makes sense--sort of like a minty taziki sauce or something :)

Kiersten - Me too! I'm not a big fan of minty things, but I could easily eat two full cones of mint chip ice cream in one sitting! :D

Jes - The person that first comes up with a way to eat things through a computer screen is going to be a gazillionaire! I wasn't sure what to call it - it's not really a sauce, it's not really a vinaigrette, so I guess dressing is the closest thing because without it the potatoes would be naked! :D

Hum..somehow I just lost the comment I was going to post..d'oh! But in a nutshell, mint chip ice cream..like, heaven in a cone you mean? How I love the stuff! Once we get rid of all this freakin' snow in Boston (we have snow canyons!!) I must make this!

I tried making this but after about 40 minutes in the ice cream maker (I have the same model you do) it was still the same, syrupy consistency. The only thing I can think of is that the alcohol in the vanilla extract was impeding the freezing process. Did you have any trouble with this?

Hi Audrey! (I love your name!) Sorry it took me a few days to reply, Mr. Wing-It and I have been traveling and I've been too tired to even look at the computer. To answer your question, that has never happened to my ice creams! I'm so sorry you ended up with a syrupy non-ice cream. You might be on to something, it could very well be the vanilla. I use the Costco brand which is 35% alcohol and my ice creams always freeze perfectly. Maybe your vanilla has a higher alcohol content? Thanks for the heads up though!